WESTWELL AND HOLWELL

Westwell and Holwell are a couple of small villages about 2 miles south-west of Burford in the delightful rolling countryside between Burford and the Gloucestershire border. Westwell is only about three quarters of a mile from the border, and is believed to be so named because in the village was the most westerly well in Oxfordshire.

In the centre of Westwell is a pond and the unusual war memorial and nearby are the manor house and the parish church of St. Mary on a slight hill overlooking the pond. The war memorial consists only of roughly squared stones with a brass inset on one face which was formerly part of the clock of the Cloth Hall at Ypres.

Parts of St. Mary's Church are Norman, although the Norman church was built where a Saxon church once stood. Parts of the manor house date from the mid 156th century and the dovecot dates from the 17th century. For the history and full information about St. Mary's Church click here.

The gardens of Westwell Manor house are open to the public during the summer months.

Holwell is about three quarters of a mile to the south-east of Westwell. Here too the parish church is St. Mary's Church, but here the present building dates only from the late 19th century. For the history and full information about St. Mary's Church click here.

Nearby is the well-known Cotswold Wildlife Park.